TOP 10 Songs From Fiddler on the Roof – Thursday’s Top Ten List

Way back on January 10, my Top 10 List featured fun factoids from Fiddler on the Roof. At the time, I contemplated ranking the Top 10 songs from this amazing, timeless musical. The impending task was so overwhelming that I needed to take a couple weeks off. Was that part of a vast eternal plan? Well, swiftly flew the days, and here I am.

(And no, all day and every day long, I didn’t biddy biddy bum…)

Truth be told, I was in Israel visiting my brother and his family to celebrate the Bat Mitzvahs of my (twin) nieces, and catching up with their two older sisters and mishpocha. Perhaps, I should have polled them for this list, but at the beginning, middle and end of the day, these are my own choices—however whimsically and flimsily ranked.

So enjoy the music…thanks to some amazing composers, artists and Youtube..and don’t forget Sholem Aleichem—whose story inspired all of this fun. Yes, all of these songs are endearing, enduring and greatly infectious.

Ranking them and having to cut out a couple others was very tough; as with so many of these lists, if I did the list tomorrow, the following order may be totally different. Indeed, an important factor in all of this is my mood when listening once again to these great songs. Celebratory or melancholy? Yes.

The links (on the song titles) taqke you to clips from the 1971 Norman Jewison-directed cinematic version, which starred (Chaim) Topol as Tevye. Topol was the first Israeii actor to be nominated for an Academy Award.

For a change, I am going to let each song on the list speak for itself, without commentary. I am armed with an expansive vocabulary, but how many times can I describe a song as beautiful, evocative or poignant?

It is one measure of Fiddler’s greatness that Matchmaker was ranked in a tie for tenth. Obviously, some would rate it much higher, but it would be the undisputed signature song for many other musicals.

PLEASE NOTE: As of now, this concludes my Top 10 Lists for jewocity.com. It has been a great pleasure to put these together; I believe that my column has been the only ongoing, weekly Jewish-oriented Top 10 list. Thank you as always for reading it. Please feel free to stay in touch for future developments, as I do intend to find new homes for my Top 10s, Gold Notes columns, Wordapods and my other signature column, Bagels and Jocks. Below, please find a couple of my points of contact, including email.

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About the Author: An author, speaker and custom writer from Cherry Hill, NJ, Matt loves to entertain people through his writing and public speaking. Laughs, Smiles and just enough Wisdom reach his audience through the magic of his written and spoken words.
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